Asia report: China closes up after choppy day

The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.1% at 2,901.39. It was the sixth straight day of gains for the benchmark, the longest stretch since July last year.

Those gains came after the market lost more than 3% in morning trading, with investors selling off property stocks as alarm over a housing bubble in hot markets was stoked by analyst warnings.

Huang Qifan, mayor of China's most populous urban area Chongqing, said the country could be on the brink of financial ruin if local governments kept reducing downpayment requirements, encouraging home buying.

The comments were made during the National People's Congress meeting in Beijing, China's annual legislative session where an economic road map for the next year was being laid out.

A collection of mainlaind property stocks quoted by Citic Securities was down 1.5% by the end of trading. Poly Real Estate Group lost 1.18%, and Gree Real Estate lost 1.52% - both are among China's largest developers.

Media and computing technology sectors were on the up, however, with both sectors gaining close to 2%. The Nasdaq-style startup-heavy ChiNext index was up 2.17% at close.

Investors were also partially reacting to the latest trade data out of Beijing, showing China's exports dropping by the largest amount for more than five years in February.

The 25.4% drop for the month followed an 11.2% decline in January. It was well below the median forecast for a slide of 15%, reinforcing some of the gloom surrounding the Chinese economy in recent months.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.76%, and the Hang Seng Index closed off 0.73%.

After surging ahead in US trading overnight, oil was down after the Asian day. Brent crude was last off 0.74% at $40.54 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was down 0.69% at $37.64.

In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 broke its six-day run of gains by closing down 0.7%. That was despite a remarkable 19% gain in iron ore prices and a landmark deal announced between Fortescue Metal and Brazilian mining giant Vale.

Fortescue ended up closing down 9.4%, having leapt almost 7% higher earlier in the session.

Further east, the S&P/NZX 50 advanced 0.4% to yet another record level, closing at 6,446.73. Airport operator AIAL once again led, after it talked up the opportunity provided by the expiry of its current taxi licensing agreement at the country's biggest airport.

In currencies, the yen edged 0.46% towards the greenback, last trading at JPY 112.94 per dollar. The Aussie slipped away, last trading 0.43% weaker at AUD 1.3349 per USD, and the Kiwi was behind by 0.66%, at NZD 1.4798 to the dollar.